Crispy Baked Potato Vadas. They’re Fat-Free.

You’ve often heard me talk about my kids, Opie and Jay, but what you probably don’t know is that I have a third child I’ve been hiding from you.

Her name’s Murraya Curry, and she’s a bit of a diva. When I found her at the Indian store, no more than about four inches tall, I was so excited that I forked over a rather exorbitant amount of cash for the privilege of taking her home. I fed her, watered her, gave her a bigger, better bed to rest in. When the nights began to bite, I had Desi carry her gently to the warmest, coziest spot in the house where she could continue to thrive. And a few weeks back, I chopped off her limbs. All three of them.

Okay, if you haven’t already got it, Murraya Curry (figure that pun out — it was coined by Desi and it’s a good one) is my curry leaf plant. It is true that I am obsessed with her. It is also true that I do, as accused by Desi, take better care of her than I do anyone else in the house. And to get why I love her so, you will have to wear an Indian expatriate’s shoes and walk about in them.

Curry leaves are an integral ingredient in many Indian — and most south Indian — dishes. They are incredibly aromatic and add an inviting, pungent flavor to recipes that’s impossible to duplicate with any substitute. In India, they grow so plentifully that vegetable sellers often give away huge bunches for free. When I was growing up in Bombay’s concrete jungle, a Tamil family that lived in the apartment building had a tall curry leaf plant growing in their postage-stamp-sized yard. In my father’s backyard in Goa, the purple seeds from his curry leaf tree fall on the earth and create hundreds of little shoots — my dad practically has to weed them out. And in his childhood home in Madras, Desi remembers a thick, large, plentiful tree that he would thoughtlessly tear the leaves off from, for his mom to toss into rasam or sambar.

But here, in the northeastern United States — and for Indian immigrants living in any part of the world that freezes up for part of the year — curry leaves are hard to grow and therefore invaluable. They are not easy to find in stores, where I live, and the only way I can get them is to drive miles and miles to the Indian store or the H Mart where I pay a small fortune for a bunch.

So when I found a little curry leaf plant at the Indian grocery store, I was excited and thrilled at the prospect of growing — and harvesting — my very own curry leaves. I watched practically every video I could find on growing and caring for curry leaf plants. I moved the growing plant into a larger pot, and a still larger one this year. I quenched her thirst with water left over from washing rice, and energized her with coffee grounds, because someone on the internet said so.

Over the past two years the tiny little shoot has grown taller than I am. I’m a little in awe of her. In fact, I was so petrified to touch her for the first year that I continued to buy curry leaves at the store rather than harvest them from the plant. Finally, this year, after watching a video that encouraged pruning the plant to make it grow faster and bushier, I went ahead and lopped off three of her branches. Which left me with more curry leaves than I can count.

Desi loves curry leaves too much — it springs within a Tamilian, y’know — so he hasn’t complained when they’ve made an appearance in practically every dish I’ve cooked this past week. Yesterday, I added them to these Baked Potato Vadas, one of my absolutely favorite dishes because I love spuds and I love crispy things and I love it when they come with no fat.

Yes, that’s right. The only cooking medium these incredibly delicious vadas need is an oil spray. The starch in the potatoes does a lot of the work of crisping them up and making them golden and delicious. And they are incredibly simple to make– in fact, once you have your potatoes boiled and ready, you can make the vadas in about 15 minutes and then let the oven do the work.

The curry leaves are delicious in these vadas, but they’re not indispensable. If you don’t have them, you can use another herb– coriander or mint would be great here too.

I’ve got to go, take another look at Murraya before I go to bed. I wonder if I watered her enough today. And should I get a blanket to swaddle her pot in, now that the nights are starting to cool down?

I just make it at home– roughly equal quantities of ginger and garlic. Add them to the food processor and let it zip. I have used the storebought pastes in past from the Indian store, but gave them up because they contain too many preservatives for my comfort.

Thank you, I went to Safeway just now only to look at the ingredients behind the garlic Ginger paste & thought the same! You are awesome. FYI, its nice to read the stories behind your recipes, gives it a personal flavor and very enjoyable. Loved the name you gave the curry leaves. :-))

Vaishali- The potato vadas look good. I will have to try them. Your curry leaf plant story sounds just like mine. For us it is a piece of home. I killed a big one about 3 yrs back because I left it out until it got too cold at night. This one gets treated like royalty. It has become a mother plant this year and started making lots of babies (root suckers) in the pot. I take them out and either give to friends or sell them at the Indian grocery store. Don’t put too many coffee grounds, since that will make the soil too acidic. I think I need to transfer mine into a bigger pot, but I am afraid of breaking mine or my husbands back carrying that thing in and out every year. So I might just have to just stick to the 25 gal pot. Aaahhh the smell of fresh curry leaf…

Hi Annapurna, thanks for the advice on coffee grounds– I think I may have gone a little overboard of late with adding them of late and I’d better stop. I’ve seen some videos where people grow the plants in rather small pots– not very small but smaller than 25-gallon for sure — and their plants seem to do well. I guess the secret might be to freshen up the soil and fertilizer more frequently. I moved mine into a rather big pot this year, but the root ball, when I removed it from the pot, seemed to be small enough that it would have been comfortable in the old pot for another year. Live and learn, I guess. 🙂

you are amazing!!! words cannot express how thankful I am to you for sharing your recipes with us. this was so simple& delicious and I can’t believe I didnt need any oil. Vaishali, you and (Vegan) Richa are my absolute favourite foodies on the planet 🙂

I tried to grow a curry plant. I had a horrible time with scale and didn’t want to use a pesticide for fear of poisoning. Any hints on how to keep the bugs away? It makes a nice houseplant, although I also had a hard time getting it to bush out….it just grew straight up and when I cut the top out, it made 3 branches and then grew straight up some more.

Looks yummy! I have a curry leaf plant that my mother in law gave me when I got married, 12 years ago. It has served us well! Here in Malaysia it is so easy to grow, though. I’ve never seen flowers and seeds, though, but it does grow more trunks from the roots. There have been times when it had too many bugs and I cut of ALL of the leaves, leaving only the main branches. It always comes back nicely and more bushy than ever. I will miss it when I eventially move back to the U.S. 🙁 hopefully I will be able to find one there as well. Love how you named yours!